Recap: The Amazing Race Canada 8, Episode 3 – “I have a little wiener!”

Recap: The Amazing Race Canada 8, Episode 3 – We Love Weenies!

The next Leg begins immediately as teams must drive to Waterton Village and find the next clue outside Pat’s Waterton. Franca & Nella maintain their lead as they open the clue telling teams to ride a side-by-side bike to Wieners of Waterton. Here, teams must memorize four orders and then deliver them around the village.

The sisters have trouble navigating around the village, allowing Jesse & Marika to pass them since they did not need to memorize the orders. The siblings and Beverley & Veronica just yell the orders to each other at the door. When Brendan & Connor arrive, Beverley & Veronica inform them of the trick so as to hopefully be gifted with one of the extra Express Passes. Later, Franella offer to give the brothers their map in exchange for an Express Pass. The brothers refuse the offer, but will accept the map anyway to potentially influence their decision.

Teams must now drive to Pincher Station where they will sign up for one of two buses at the Guru-sponsored sign-up board which will take them to Fernie, British Columbia. After signing up, teams must use the Expedia app to book a hotel in nearby Pincher Creek for the night.

Jesse & Marika, Franca & Nella, Beverley & Veronica and Brendan & Connor get on Bus #1 while everyone else has to settle for Bus #2.

Upon arrival in Sparwood, British Columbia, teams must hop in a 2022 Chevy Traverse RS to reveal the Detour: Learning to Fly or Ready to Roll. In Learning to Fly, teams must listen to a fishing story from Scott which includes a series of uniquely named lures, also known as flies. Teams must then sprint down to the river and place the flies in the exact order they were told in the story. In Ready to Roll, teams must correctly assemble a mountain bike based only on a display.

Jesse & Marika choose Learning to Fly and begin listening to the story. Beverley & Veronica, Franca & Nella and Brendan & Connor choose the bike. Craig & Catherine and Court & Ali arrive at the fly fishing and they agree to work with Jesse & Marika. Cedric & Tychon and Dennis & Durrell choose the bike. Cassie & Jahmeek initially choose the bike, but decide to switch when they struggle to even get started.

Brendan & Connor are first to finish the bike and open the next clue revealing the Road Block: Who’s ready to take to the streets? For this Road Block, teams must learn a series of complex 80s-tyle aerobic exercises. They will then lead a class of locals in order to receive the next clue.

All the fly-fishing teams copy each other’s board and also get the next clue. Beverley & Veronica are 5th out of the Detour.

At the Road Block, Connor gets started first with Jesse, Craig and Ali close behind. Craig, who has taught aerobics, easily finishes the task first. He and Catherine can now head to the Pit Stop at Fernie Golf Course where they check-in as Team #1. They win a trip to Thailand and a $2000 Marshalls gift card. Brendan & Connor are 2nd.

Back at the Detour, Franca & Nella and Dennis & Durrell are struggling. The sisters ask the uncle/nephew to help them get their tires started. Cassie & Jahmeek arrive at the fly-fishing and think this Detour is much easier and the one they should’ve chosen in the first place. Cedric & Tychon, Dennis & Durrell and Franca & Nella finish the Detour next, dropping Cassie & Jahmeek to last.

At the Road Block, Beverley and Jesse are next to finish. Beverley & Veronica and Jesse & Marika are Teams 3 and 4. Court & Ali are 5th followed by Cedric & Tychon and Franca & Nella in 6th and 7th, respectively. Dennis & Durrell manage to check-in as Team #8.

Cassie & Jahmeek are unfortunately unable to overcome the time lost from switching Detours and are eliminated. They are shocked to be out so early.

Episode Thoughts

Hmm, an interesting episode. It’s pretty much a typical smalltown TARC Leg. I know TBC/KOR Legs are as much logistics decisions as they are deliberately designed on a course. But considering they had to spend the night nearby anyway, they could’ve just made it a Non-Elimination Leg.

Anyway, the tasks this Leg were a mixed bag. First of all, the wiener challenge made no sense. There was really no point to it considering that teams didn’t even need to memorize anything. That’s on the poor task design. It’s another one of those TAR Canada tasks where teams can easily exploit any loophole in the task. It was a filler task, which on one hand is good because we need to see more Route Markers in a Leg. But it really didn’t do much in terms of competition. Nice promo for the local business at least, I guess.

Now as Jon was describing the Detour, I initially thought it was completely absurd. Assembling a bike vs. memorizing stuff AND running down to the river? I assumed the bike assembling would be easier. But I guess not. lol It also helped that the fly-fishing teams just told each other the answers while using six heads are better than two. So that could be something not foreseen while designing the tasks.

The Road Block was okay. A typical learn and perform task. And again, very smalltown Canada.

Overall, it was an okay Leg and episode. Not too memorable, but certainly not as offensively bad or boring as it could’ve been.

Oh! And it was nice to see the crew spotted in the background as well:

My Subjective Team Thoughts

Still no standout team for me yet. I’m not really rooting for any team in particular. Again, like I mentioned last week, Franca & Nella are like my default team. But I’m not overly excited for them as I wish I was.

I was afraid Catherine & Craig were slowly starting to get annoying with their random bursts of Broadway routines. But at least in this episode, they kept it to a minimum and had a good, solid Leg win. It’s always interesting and fun to see a team get a task that plays to their strengths.

Brendan & Connor, meanwhile, have gotten quite a bit… how to say it? Loud? I guess? They’re not annoying yet. But if they continue like this, I will definitely see them as such more than simply fun bros.

Pretty much everyone else were on their game this week. Almost Racebot-like.

Cassie & Jahmeek would’ve been an interesting team to see survive on the Race longer. Them being surprised at the Mat, almost in an upset way, was unexpected for me. So it made me think them staying the Race could have produced some interesting competitive dynamics with other teams. Oh well.